The Age Of Forgiveness
by Raixander
Summary: A sequel of The Age of Consent, although can be read as a stand alone. This is what happens next, when the false Patriarch finds out that the young man, who gave his innocence and his love to a Gemini Saint once, is standing next to him fully resurrected. Yaoi/Slash. HIATUS


**Disclaimer : **Saint Seiya belongs to Kurumada and Toei.

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**Soundtrack : **

1) Nella Fantasia, from Amaury Vassili : as theme song of the story

2) Forgiveness, from Matthew West : for Saga's request from Camus.

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Pardon for the mistakes, but I aim for posting the chapter before midnight ;-)

Of course, I'd love to have the critics and corrections, as always.

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As usual, I am open for critics and suggestions. But above all, **thank you for reading!**

Many happy returns for a sparkling Gemini.

And for RavenClawWitch, this is also for you. Thank you for having commissioned a beautiful drawing for The Age of Consent. It's really an honor and I thank you deeply!

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The first time I open my eyes, I can directly feel the warm tints of sunlight falling upon my face. Despite the smell of damp and the hard, cold stone beneath me, I know it for sure that it is sunlight as its brightness blinds my eyes. My dead eyes. Yes, I am dead. Or yes, I was dead. Does it mean I am alive now? Or am I in Elysium?

Before I can protest of how could I end up in Elysium, the truth comes in.

No, of course not, foolish me! Even if Athena did forgive me, I had no rights to be in Elysium. Why should I? After all, what I aimed when I stabbed myself with her golden staff of Nike was not to slickly get into Elysium and escaped the world's judgment. Although her Aegis shield should have destroyed and banned any evil form in my body, I just had to make sure that my Abraxas would never find a way back to earth and Sanctuary through me. It was just a double measurement for serving my Goddess. I owed it to her.

As for me, waiting for my punishment in Tartarus would be what I deserve the most. At least, I will finally put a face for every judge in the Underworld. Maybe I won't see Judge Rhadamanthys for I am a Greek. Unless he would be interested in my case, as a traitor of gods.

By the way, is this now the Underworld? Isn't it too nice to have a warm sunlight here? Or is it just a screen saver to cover the hardest and cruel truth of the Tartarus?

Whatever, I am ready to face my punishment. There's nothing I regret about being in hell.

Waiting for the blinding light to disappear—or my vision to appear—my memory comes back faster. I was lying when I said I had no regret.

Now I know that I have one. It is the deepest sorrow after the regret of betraying my goddess and shedding the blood of many people including my own best friend and my twin brother.

My regret is simple. It was the grief of not having the time to apologize to my beloved ones. It was the regret of not being able to show them that I have taken the responsibility of my sin and even being forgiven by our goddess. It was the regret of not giving them a chance to feel proud again about me because they were already dead before me. Yes, my dear ones whose deaths were caused by my own hands.

My truly dear ones: I don't have many. There are only few of them.

Kanon, my dear, unfortunate twin is definitely my other half that I should never live without.

And...

Camus. The Aquarius Gold Saint of Athena. The man whose sparkling eyes like an Ocean Dream Diamond could charm and pacify a troubled, sinful soul like mine.

Camus.

My...love.

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To describe the beautiful teal-haired as the love of my life will sound too theatrical. After all, how many fractions of my life I've spent with him as his lover?

One night.

It was only a night under the mask of a bogus Pope that ended with an Emperor Demon Fist attack on him, to continue the lies on him.

That night, I took his innocence and savored his beauty in the name of the Rite of Passage. That night, I knew that I loved him in that way and destined to love him forever. He was my first love and the only love I know to be both platonic and amorous.

Now, it's reasonable to call him the love of my life, isn't it? Despite the rest of my life was spent behind the mask, only were able to watch him and to protect him secretly.

Secretly, because I couldn't risk it for the evil one to find how precious the ice beauty was to me. Although in the end, it was me who killed him.

It was the coward me who hid behind a gigantic mask and let the evil one ruled. It was my mistake to let that very Ice Saint do a false Pope's order of guarding the zodiac houses from intruders at all cost.

I was sure that the evil one had meant for taking the life of young bronze saints when he said _at all cost_. _We_ certainly meant it that he should take his beloved student's life for defending his Aquarius Temple. It had never crossed my weak mind that he would let his student take his life.

My Emperor Demon Fist attack on him must have been lifted along with his disappearing life signs. In that small fraction of frozen time, he might have realized that it was the real me who took his innocence, who took his love declaration and declined it. It was me who deceived him and everyone else. It was me who did all the evil things he would never forgive.

Because...

He used his last cosmo to greet me. Or questioned me. Or pitied me. Or condemned me.

His beautiful icy cosmo was a fresh breeze of Siberian spring as ever when it caressed the trembling me in the Pope's chamber. But the words he whispered through his last breaths and cosmo were as indecipherable as his deep greenish dark blue eyes.

_"Now I see you...Saga."_

What were you trying to say, _Angelo Mou_? Did you see me as the evil one I used to be? Did you see me as your bathing Saga at the pond? Did you see me as your Saga in Patriarch's library? Did you see me as the evil one who made Milo, your lover, taint his hand with the blood of the innocents?

Camus...if you see me, what will you say to me?

If I see you again, will you let me look straight into your ocean-deep eyes and to convince you of my honest regrets? Will you let me love you again, Camus?

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The blinding light has gone as my eyes are used to them now.

I realize that I am lying inside a stone tomb. It's logical, since I was dead. But I swear that I can hear the faint sound of chirping birds.

I wake up and manage to put my body into sitting, observing my dead man's white tunic. In the warm air like this, the Underworld is too much alike the living one.

The noises of opened tombs around me draw my attention. So there are others around me.

Shortly, I see Cancer Death Mask.

Then I see Pisces Aphrodite.

Then I see Capricorn Shura.

I am sure that I am in the Underworld now. And we are all waiting for the judges to throw us into Cocytos.

And then...a slender and elegant figure rises from another tomb. I see long teal mane beautifully flowing down his back. And the deep ocean colored eyes staring back at me with confusion.

My heart stops beating.

_Now I see you, Camus._

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_Happy birthday for a sparkling Gemini from the North Pillar._

_And many thanks for Melissia-Scorpio for the inspirations. For example, Abraxas is taken from her story. And Abraxas is a smart substitute of Ares. I just love it._


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